7 Deadly Mistakes That Will Make Your Business Fail

Have you noticed that some popular businesses years ago disappeared suddenly? Do you recall some of the recently launched businesses with great potentials that did not survive even a year or two? What could have happened to these businesses? What made them fail? Let’s take a look at the 7 most common and deadliest mistakes in running a business that companies commit to make them fail.

Reluctance to Change

The main culprit to an unsuccessful business is reluctance to change. According to Brian Tracy, a motivational speaker and author, you have to be flexible to survive and grow. He said that the mistake of those companies that fail is that they are not changing to the new realities and they just keep on doing what they have been doing. He suggests that you imagine everything in your office has been burnt, but you still have your people and a space to start over. What products and services would you offer now? Try to let go of those that make up a big part of your expenses or consume much of your time, but only contribute very little to your revenues. Instead, focus on the more productive ones. Another way is to look at your target market and find out what they are up to. See if your products or services can still satisfy their needs or wants. If not, it’s probably time to make that change.

Poor Marketing Strategies

Even if you have a great product or service, but nobody knows about it or you don’t know of ways to promote it, you will never succeed. You need to have cost-effective marketing strategies that will help promote your business and generate more leads. These include utilizing online ads, print ads, e-mail marketing and having a website.

Bad Management

A business that is not properly managed is bound to fail. Managing your business well means possessing the qualities of a good leader that will guide the team. Bigger companies need to have managers and supervisors who are competent in their position, be it in production, finance, purchasing, selling, and human resources. If you are starting a small business, you have to know the business you are into, so you can manage it well. You have to treat your people well to earn their respect and cooperation and eventually achieve your goals.

Bad Location

In many cases, businesses fail because of bad location. As part of your research before launching your business, you have to choose an area where there’s considerable foot traffic for your business to survive and earn profits. You also need to ask questions like the following: Does this place have some future plans of development , which will eventually make my business more successful? Is this place safe and secure with ample parking space for my customers? Is it accessible for my target market? Is this area easily affected by flood and power outages, which of course affect my business? If you have answers to these questions, then you will know if you have a good spot for your business to grow.

Arrogance and Poor Customer Service

Some businesses may have maintained the quality of their products, but their service is not good enough. What will happen to this type of business is that when a competitor with the same quality of products serves their customers way better than they do and adopts to the needs of their customers faster than they do, that competitor will surely steal their customers and kill their business. If you want your business to survive despite tight competition, you have to give importance to your customers and be humble enough to recognize that you need to do more for them aside from improving the quality of your products and services.

Lack of Determination

Many small businesses fail because they lack the will and determination to continue their business despite obstacles. If you give up too easily, you will never get to where you ought to be. A business can sometimes take a year or two for you to start getting returns. Think of long-term results rather than short-term. To give you some inspiration, look at great businessmen and companies today that have started small and have been through really tough times, but have emerged triumphant. Great examples are Henry Sy of SM, as well as the National Bookstore. Both surpassed the difficulties of World War II and other unique problems.

No Extra Funds for Tough Times

Just like us individuals, your business also needs to save for the rainy days in order for it to survive when the going gets tough. You need to have extra funds just in case a big client suddenly pulls out his account or when the whole country gets affected by economic crisis, for example, and you need to fix things. When you don’t have enough money to cover for your operations during these tough times, you might not be able to go back up again.

Making at least one of these mistakes can cause your business to fail, so make sure you try to manage whatever lapse you have as soon as possible. Don’t wait for things to get worse. If you want your business to succeed, the best time to start fixing things is now.